by Adam Bennett
***
"Success! Master, I have found success!" Vengeance’s voice declared, summoning the Archmage Krozer’s attention. She was not allowed to materialise unless her master willed it.
"Oh? You have the wizard’s soul?" Krozer asked.
"I do," she smiled. "I have his word. A blood pact."
"You fool! What did you bargain for?"
"All I need is the memory of my transformation, and I shall have his soul in my hands."
"You witless succubus!" Krozer raged, "Don’t you see? He seeks to poison you against me."
"Of course not, master," she vowed, eyes downcast. "My loyalty to you will never be shaken."
"You must go back. Take his soul!"
"I cannot, master. I have already made my oath… " she replied, hurt. "Why do you doubt me, master? Give me what I need to destroy him."
"Very well," Krozer spat. Fingering the obsidian dagger, he slipped it deep inside the spirit’s diaphanous chest, arming her with the memory of her transformation.
"Now begone, Vengeance, and bring me his soul or I'll destroy you both."
***
Gavin sat up in convulsion, clutching his chest in intense pain…
And just as suddenly, the vision ended. Pox looked at him in bewilderment as he panted to recover his breath. As soon as he was able to, the wizard heaved, "I have it."
What happened? the kobold communicated by thought.
"Drinking the succubus’ blood has soldered everything into place! I can feel her." He smiled. "I can see her thoughts. She has just confronted Krozer to give us what we need—and I saw her death. I know how to undo the spell!" He tittered, elated. "I think we have a chance of success!"
Pox paled. What did you give in return for such a memory? he prodded, terrified of the wizard’s answer.
"My soul. She will come to collect it the next time I sleep."
I can make you a potion that can protect you against the spell of a succubus. The kobold hopped up in a hurry, rummaging through their pantry for the necessary ingredients.
"That might be wise," the wizard smiled, "and I will need something to keep my wits sharp. A day must pass before she can collect her due. I can prepare the counter spells, but I cannot begin until Mange returns with a lodestone. "
He comes, Pox communicated, I can feel his thoughts. He returns with a lodestone the size of a melon in his hand.
***
While they waited for Mange to arrive, Pox helped Gavin gather the ingredients needed for the counter spells.
“Fetch me that one,” the wizard bid, pointing to the elaborate glass stopper poking out of his travel satchel.
What is this? The kobold held up a vial. Upon its label two words were printed: harena canens.
"Perfect!" Gavin smiled at the vial. "This, coupled with the lodestone, is all we’ll need."
But it’s singing…
"… sand. Aye, I know." Gavin closed his eyes and clutched the vial to his breast triumphantly.
But I don’t understand how… Pox began, but Mange’s arrival interrupted him.
The scarred kobold was dirty and exhausted but whole. "It was easy; like a game, almost," Mange boasted, almost punch-drunk from exhaustion. "With no allergy from the metal, I just hopped down the mine shaft and found what I needed. You are a true potion master, Gavin!" He presented the lodestone to the wizard with a flourish.
“Thank you, Mange,” the wizard replied. “Now, you two fetch yourselves a meal and a few hours’ sleep. I must undo the spell now, and you will not want to see this. And once this is done, I will need you ready. Everything will happen very quickly once I finish."
Both kobolds nodded and left the chamber for some well deserved rest.
Once he was alone, Gavin prepared himself for the spell. He used the lodestone to remove the pins that the Archmage had used to bind the woman, drawing them out of her flesh in reverse order that Krozer had done. After he removed each pin from the maiden’s flesh, he covered the wounds with a healing salve and a further spell of protection and defence.
As soon as the pins were removed, Gavin could touch the maiden’s flesh without the Archmage’s detection. The grains of sand sang as they trickled from the vial and into the mouth of the maiden. He gently eased the clot of the succubus’ blood into the wound upon her chest, hoping that it would reconnect her to the life that she had lost. Still weak from blood loss, he did not have much to give, but he eagerly opened a vein at his wrist to stain her lips. Finally finished, he gave her hand a tender squeeze and wrapped her in a burial shroud.
Gavin stood up wearily, realising that he was no longer alone. He did not know how long Pox had watched him work, but there were tears of reverence in his eyes.
Is it done? the elder kobold asked.
"Her spirit is still bound, but her flesh is released. Please carry her to somewhere safe while I destroy the pins. You will know if we are successful." The wizard strode to the chamber where his kobold companion slumbered. "How is Mange?"
He will wake in a few moments, ready and eager to join you.
"I almost hope he doesn’t," Gavin confessed. "This will be dangerous, and I cannot guarantee our safety."
You have already done what dozens of wizards have not been able to accomplish. You will defeat the Archmage, I am sure of it.
"I wish I shared your confidence." Gavin gave a telling yawn.
Is the potion wearing off so soon?
"Aye, I’m afraid it is. We need to hurry. Mange?" Gavin called, tapping his companion on the shoulder.
"Mmmf?" the sleepy kobold called, momentarily disoriented. Waking fully, he saw the shrouded form in his father’s arms and asked, "You were successful, then?"
"The first part of the spell is complete," he replied with a nod.
"The lodestone?" Mange asked nervously.
"It worked perfectly," Gavin replied. "But we must return to the barrow at once."
"Did we leave some critical piece of the spell behind?" the kobold asked, puzzled.
"No. We need to return there as a distraction, so Pox can spirit her body away somewhere safe."
"Okay,” he said, “let’s go.”
***
"I’m never going to see her again, am I?" Mange asked sadly, after they had travelled a mile together in silence.
"Oh, you’ll see her within the hour. She will most likely kill us both, or at least she’ll try," Gavin scoffed.
"But my sister? We will release her from the mage’s spell and she will die. I will never see her again."
"Mange," the wizard sighed, "I thought you realised what you were asking when we made this arrangement. Think on why you are doing this: do you want Vengeance, or do you want your sister back?"
"I shall probably gain neither," Mange spat, bitterly.
"I will do my best to free her. I vow it, Mange," Gavin swore.
"I know, and I trust you. But… why are you doing this?"
"Do you really want to know?" Gavin asked.
The kobold nodded.
"Six years ago, a mage corrupted a sibyl. She gave him a prophecy that he didn’t want to hear, so he seduced her and drove her to madness. She still gives prophecies, but her mind is shattered. She is very dear to me, and I would give anything for her. So I made a pact with the elves: they will care for her while I gather what is needed for them to heal her. That is why I have come."
Mange nodded, but then pressed him further. "Six years ago? You must be in error. The Archmage has not left this duchy in fifteen years. Krozer could not possibly have been the one to maim your sibyl." He instantly regretted his words, afraid that Gavin would abandon his quest if he knew the truth.
"You’re right," Gavin nodded. "Krozer did not injure my sweet sibyl. But the one who did travelled to Den, and when Vengeance destroyed him, Krozer took all of his possessions. I need to defeat Krozer in order to get my revenge on one of his victims." He chuckled. "I know how strange that sounds."
When they arrived at the ba
rrow, Gavin warned his companion, "Please remain by the horses, and flee if you need to. I don’t want you to witness this, and I don’t want you to die if I am unsuccessful."
"Nonsense," the kobold spat, "I am your squire; you’ll need me there.”
They entered the barrow and Gavin used a brazier to start a fire. Mange stood guard at the entrance of the barrow while the wizard chanted a counter spell of release over each pin before placing it gently in the flames:
"I unbind your feet, Vengeance, so that you may travel only where you wish to travel. I unbind your hands, Vengeance, so that you may act only as you wish to act. I unbind your tongue, Vengeance, so that you may speak only what you wish to speak… "
***
In Den, Vengeance clutched her stomach in shock. "Master," she called out, in fear and bewilderment, "I feel strange."
The Archmage’s eyes narrowed intensely. "Show me, Vengeance," he barked, and she produced for him a vision: a familiar scene of a barrow, with a wizard destroying each iron pin in a fire pit, chanting counter spells of freedom and release.
"Take me to him! Destroy him now, before he completes his spells!" Krozer roared, and together they shifted into forms of dark smoke, travelling on the wind to overtake their prey.
***
Gavin held the last pin in his hand, thrusting it in the fire as he chanted his final counterspell, "I unbind your mind, Vengeance, so that you may think… "
He never finished his statement, for Vengeance and Krozer entered the barrow with enough force to knock him over and extinguish the flames. Krozer materialised before him, lunging at him with his obsidian dagger. Engrossed in the spell, Gavin reacted too late to defend himself. With little struggle, the obsidian found its mark inside the wizard’s chest, piercing his heart. His soul was absorbed into the dagger and his flesh disintegrated in a deluge of dark smoke.
Mange fled in terror.
As Gavin's soul spiralled inward, drawn deeper into the dagger, it met the spirit of the one it had tried to free. Thought to thought, he communicated the remainder of the spell, “…Only what you wish to think. I rename you Canens, and the only binding I place upon you is one of protection and defence. You alone control the destiny of your soul—as well as mine. Take it and treat it as you wish.”
***
Far away, in the heart of the forest, Pox kept watch over the remains of his slain daughter. He had settled her beside a riverbank, resuming his vigil of grief.
Suddenly, the elf maiden’s body shook, gasping in convulsions. Her lifeless body bolted upright. Her long dead hands clutched at her throat as new life entered her form. He held up a hand to her cheek lovingly as her body gave one last gasp of air before dissolving into a pile of sand.
***
Mange ran to the horses as quickly as he could. Undaunted by Gavin’s demise, the kobold ran to his last defence: the silvery unicorn horn safely stored in the mule’s saddlebags. Despite Mange’s protests, the wizard had stubbornly refused to arm himself with the one weapon that the kobold knew would work.
Mange leapt into the saddle, whipping Gemellus in a furious charge against the Archmage, but he was too late, he could hear Krozer calling for his Vengeance to destroy not only the barrow, but every living thing in sight.
Knowing he could not stop his sister as she carried out her master’s bidding, he tried to cut off her master’s words. With one well-trained flick of the wrist he threw the unicorn horn as easily as he would have thrown a dagger. His days of banditry had paid off; it struck his nemesis in the breast, digging deep into the mage’s flesh where the man’s heart should have been.
Krozer looked down at the wound and laughed. Wrenching it from his flesh, he spoke a quick spell and it caught fire in his hands. A moment later, he cast the spent and darkened husk of ivory onto the ground.
"You think you can defeat me with a simple unicorn horn, you stupid kobold?" Krozer roared, causing the barrow to explode in a hailstorm of shrapnel and debris.
Mange shielded his face with his forearms, but he knew what the Archmage had done as soon as he felt the Cold Iron shards pierce his flesh. Each scrap of metal was lethal to his kobold physiology; he could not heal from a Cold Iron wound.
The Archmage loped towards him, grinning at his enemy’s failure. With his thick boot he kicked Mange squarely in the backside, taunting, "Scamper off and die out of my sight, vermin. You’re not even worthy of the honour of my Vengeance killing you."
The maimed kobold crawled away in desperate agony, seeking the horses and the comfort of home. He used Gemellus’ stirrups and reins to pull himself onto the saddle and whispered the animal into action. Leaning heavily against the animal’s neck, he drifted out of consciousness. In the distance behind him, he could hear Krozer’s furious shouts, followed by a sickening bray of pain. Gemellus fell to the dirt, bucking its master. The kobold felt nothing but the wind on his face as he flew into the darkness.
***
Gavin returned to consciousness with a snap. Still weak from the transformation, he could not comprehend the new powers that surged through him from merging his soul with the succubus. But Vengeance had kept her promise in protecting him from Krozer’s wrath: only she could end his life, and she refused to yield that power to her former master.
The wizard rematerialised with a disorienting migraine. As he pushed himself upright, he felt the ruined horn beneath his hand and swore. It had never been his intention to use it in battle, since he knew that it was still tied to the unicorn’s life force. Like Vengeance, Mercy would be another innocent life lost.
He gasped in horror as he watched Krozer’s spell shoot towards Mange. He had tried to disrupt the curse, but the wicked man’s aim was true. A bolt of lightning shot from his hand and hit Gemellus’ back legs, crippling him. The kobold hurtled forward while the mule merely crumpled to the ground in pain.
"No!" Gavin shrieked, lunging at the Archmage unarmed except for his own raw power. Krozer easily deflected his attack, tossing him to the ground like a ragdoll.
Gavin lay panting on the grass, staring up at Krozer in outrage and anger. He lay defenceless, unable to do more than watch as the Archmage lunged yet again with his obsidian dagger.
And then came the end of the Archmage Krozer. For Canens—Vengeance no longer—sought her own revenge against her cruel master. She covered the dark mage in a cloak of sand, smothering him in the weight of her new form, all the while singing to cover the screams of the man drowning in her midst. She held him tight in her deadly shroud until she felt his last heartbeat. When she was certain that her former captor was dead, she dissolved and his body slumped forward, falling to the ground with an indelicate thump.
She whipped around Gavin in an ecstatic display of gratitude and dissolved in the wind.
***
When Mange awoke, he found himself lying beneath a cloak on the forest floor. Struggling to rise, he felt a mound of warm sand grasping his hand, steadying his quaking form. It gave a gentle squeeze before receding into the mossy underbrush.
Gavin knelt beside him, offering him a cup of tea.
"Are we both dead?" he croaked, but the wizard merely shook his head.
“No, but Krozer is, and you shall have your wages." He tossed the shattered obsidian blade onto Mange’s blanketed lap. The kobold’s eyes widened.
"Vengeance did it. The spell worked; she is free now.”
"The horses?" Mange asked.
"Slain,” Gavin sighed. “Both mother and child are buried together.”
"Her child? But the mule was a bag of bones!" he scoffed with sad affection.
"Remember the unicorn I protected while she foaled?" the wizard prompted.
"Mercy was a…?"
"Apparently, if a unicorn joins with a non-unicorn—in this case, a donkey—their foal ages more quickly. Our sad Gemellus was only four years old."
"And I killed them, by ruining her horn. I am so sorry, Gavin."
"I cannot blame you. You did what you thought w
as right in trying to overcome Krozer."
"But Krozer has killed us both, in the end. Wait—are you a ghost? I saw you disintegrate, but you feel real enough." He reached to touch the wizard’s arm.
"It’s the succubus’ blood within me. I gave her my death in the blood pact. For now, she chooses that we both live.”
"But Vengeance is dead," he said, proving the fact by lifting the spent dagger.
"Vengeance is dead. But Canens lives still," he smiled, and winked at the whirlwind of dust that appeared at the edge of the kobold’s vision.
"Brother," she sang serenely, then disappeared into the wind.
"Canens?" Mange spluttered. "I would like to… " the kobold began, but Gavin stopped him.
"Let her have her freedom for a bit. She has spent so many years under the control of others; let her explore the world on her own terms. She will return to us when she has had her fill."
"But I will never heal from the Cold Iron wounds!" he lamented.
"Do you not recall your current immunity?"
Mange gasped at the memory. "The potion you gave me for my trip to the mines!"
"Aye."
"What now?" the kobold asked, attempting to rise.
"Now," Gavin replied, helping Mange steady himself, “I help you hobble home."
“You won’t go to Den?”
“No. The temptation to rule in Krozer’s stead would be too great. But Pox and I have discussed it while you slept, and he has agreed to destroy the Archmage’s Tower so others may not resume his evil. He will meet us back home when it is done.”
"But you would be a great archmage," Mange said. "Your actions have proved that."
"I am merely a knight on a quest. I am not here to rule.” He pressed his hand instinctively over an oddly shaped mound poking from his breast pocket.
“What was it?,” the kobold asked. “What is the treasure that brought you to Den?”
Gavin sighed and revealed a crystallised heart encased in green amber.
